As the snowdrops fade, daffodils explode in a burst of yellow across the landscape. Tulips begin to emerge, peeking through recently planted violas, and magnolia buds crack open. These all provide a lavish display, but in the midst of this let us take a moment to appreciate the sustained beauty of our hellebores. Since snow still covered much of the garden in late winter, our considerable collection of Helleborus species and hybrids have been consistently blooming in shades of pink, white, deep purple, green, and yellow. They really deserve a place in your garden, too.
While there are many species in the genus Helleborus, recent hybridization has produced a wide range of colorful, easy to grow plants. Helleborus × hybridus cultivars are best grown in partial shade in evenly moist, well-drained soil. In this climate blooms emerge on new growth in late winter, and can persist through spring. Large sepals take the place of petals as the colorful portion of the flower, and flowers nod at the top of 12- to 15-inch stalks. New leaves emerge around this time, which grow into an excellent glossy evergreen ground cover. Old leaves can be removed in the spring for aesthetic reasons, but care should be taken not to damage the new growth.
Every year the Pantone Color Institute—in an astute publicity move—announces a “color of the year.” Foodies and Italian expatriates will rejoice in discovering that the color for 2015 is Marsala. For the uninitiated, Marsala is a fortified Sicilian wine that is similar to port, sherry, and Madeira.
Like sherry, Marsala comes in a range of ages, colors, and sweetness levels. A drier Marsala is traditionally served chilled between the first and second course, and paired with parmesan, gorgonzola, or another tangy cheese. Sweet Marsalas are served at room temperature as a dessert wine. Most of us have encountered Marsala as a reduction of the wine, prepared with shallots, mushrooms, and herbs for the well-known chicken dish.
As far as the color of the year is concerned, many of us will be delighted that earthy tones are back. They are so wearable! Marsala (the color, that is) is a warm and seductive earthy wine-red. Colorists have described it as hearty, nurturing, stylish, and sophisticated. I am looking forward to wearing the shade on my lips and nails. It partners well with blue-grey, pale lilac, silvery pink, purple, blue, tan, golden green, apricot, and ochre.
I thought it would be fun to search out plants that embodied this color. There are lots of burgundies on the market, and there are many wine-colored reds, maroons, and deep brownish-purples. I fired up PowerPoint and started laying out slides. On each slide I placed a color swatch of Marsala, then I perused my favorite online catalogs in search of earthy, fortified, red-brown flowers and foliage.
Every week I peruse Shop in the Garden to see what orchids they have in stock, and the selection this year has been stupendous. I received Oncidium ‘Sharry Baby’ (a.k.a. the chocolate orchid) from a grower and shared her powerful fragrance with a delighted audience. Fortunately, this in-demand orchid was available to purchase in the Shop, and every chocoholic in the audience went scurrying over to capture this odiferous orchid and take her home.
As the flowers on Oncidium ‘Sharry Baby’ began to wane, I got my hands on one of her progeny, Oncidium Heaven Scent ‘Redolence’. Heaven Scent ‘Redolence’ is the offspring of Oncidium ‘Sharry Baby’ and Oncidium ‘Ruffles’. Initially, she was not as pervasively pungent as her name would suggest. After a week of taunting me with the suggestion of a fragrance, she came into her own.
Last month I took my annual winter sojourn up to New England Grows, a regional tradeshow for the Northeast. I was surprised and pleased to see a humorous theme either consciously or subconsciously woven into the educational programming, and I laughed my way through three enjoyable days of lectures as I learned what others were up to in the field of horticulture.
Another theme which I have been exploring over the course of the winter was an environmental or ecological theme. Many speakers celebrated the close relationship that horticulture has with conservation and ecology. As one speaker aptly put it, ‘we are finally putting the green back into the green industry’.
A theme that I would like to discuss today is new introductions. In one of the lectures, Kelly Norris, the Horticultural Manager for the new Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, turned the topic of new introductions into a poignant commentary on our industry, our role as gardeners, and our relationship to plants. Norris presented a ‘partial manifesto’ for modern gardening and outlined potential paths for us to follow.
While spring might still feel several long weeks away, the first cheerful blooms of the season have already made their debut in the Rock Garden! We’ve been hard at work cleaning beds, raking leaves, and removing the last of the winter debris in order to open the garden as soon as possible for everyone to enjoy. And now we’re ready.
The very first heralds of spring, the winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) are still in bloom where they were covered until the last snow to melt, and along with our other early bloomers like snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), snow crocus (Crocus tommasinianus), and winter cyclamen (Cyclamen coum), they’re still putting on a great display. This past week they’ve also been joined by even more early bulbs—netted iris hybrids such as Iris ‘Pauline’, ‘Harmony’, and ‘Katharine Hodgkin’; alpine squills (Scilla bifolia); spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum); and glory of the snow (Chionodoxa sardensis).
Vanilla gets a bad rap. The term “vanilla” is bandied about to label all manner of the unexceptional, uninspiring or flat out boring. To my shock and dismay, a coworker recently applied this idiom to my beloved automobile. I’ll have you know, good sirs and madams, the 1988 Mercury Topaz has an abstruse appeal. Really, would I squander such an uproarious collection of bumper stickers on a so-called “boring” vehicle? FYI, the color isn’t beige…it’s called “Mojave Dune.” I mean, the factory only produced 300,000 units in Mojave Dune! You get the point. This is one sweet ride.
Likewise, the vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia) itself is far from ordinary. In my humble opinion, Vanilla planifolia may be counted among the most fascinating plants in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. More than a flavoring for criminally overpriced lattes, it’s a beautiful vining orchid with a captivating history and makes a truly unique houseplant.
On a rainy day in January, I sat down with Katie Bronson and interviewed her about some of her favorite plants. Katie has been working as a gardener at NYBG for over 10 years, and has been in charge of maintaining the gardens in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.
Katie has made a lasting impact on the garden during her tenure—imparting her vision of a child-friendly garden, bringing a sophisticated aesthetic with her art background from the Pratt Institute, and imbuing the landscape with the teachings and tenets of ecological landscaping that she acquired while studying for a certificate in Sustainable Landscape Design from George Washington University.
Katie’s journey as a gardener began with one of her passions—color. She has always taken great care to create seasonal combinations that captivate the eye and have the capacity to simultaneously stimulate and calm the young hoards of children that race through the gates of the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.
I asked her about violas. Over the past decade, Katie has experimented with many different varieties of violas and pansies in her spring displays. Violas are ebullient patches of color that brighten up the garden in spring. They provide a backdrop for tulips and decorate the three large topiary caterpillars that usher the children into the Adventure Garden’s central activity space.
I find myself surrounded by bromeliads twice each year. During the early summer, when temperatures have sufficiently warmed, high-end landscape designers use these intriguing tropical beauties to dress up window boxes and the small front gardens of Manhattan town houses. And in frosty February and fickle March, though the temperatures make it an unlikely time for a northerner to encounter bromeliads, you’ll find colorful Neoregelia, showy Vriesea, and floriferous Aechmea thriving in the safe haven of our Conservatory.
Bromeliads add an important element of design to The Orchid Show with their color and texture. Their broad, lance-shaped foliage emerges gracefully from their vase-like form, adding structure and drama to the display. This year they are complemented by an array of lush, tropical and subtropical ferns. In nature, bromeliads often grow alongside orchids—the show takes this natural association and transforms it into a vibrant and stylized display.
The best way to avoid or eliminate pest and disease problems when growing orchids in your home is to follow good cultural practices. Correct water practices, consistent low-level fertilizing, a good growing medium, proper light requirements, and adequate humidity levels are all essential to getting your exotic friends to thrive.
Don’t worry if you were unable to check off all of those boxes—few of us ever do. Sometimes, all that we do to take care of our leafy little friends still isn’t enough. But let’s take a look at some user-friendly products that we have on hand to treat an ailing orchid. The first on the list is a grapefruit.
If you notice that something is munching holes in the leaves of your orchid, but you can’t find the culprit, then it’s probably a slug. They nestle into the loose, moist pieces of your fir bark potting mix and wait until dark before they strike. These nocturnal creatures can do quite a bit of damage. Leave an overturned grapefruit or citrus rind in your pot to deal with this problem. The slugs will crawl up into the damp cavity and you can then toss it out (slug and grapefruit rind together) in the morning. If you’re not a citrus person, then a large leaf of lettuce will do. Alternatively, the famous beer-in-a-shallow-bowl trick (about 1/2 an inch of beer) will make everyone happy.
Invasive Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) outcompetes native understory and prevents forest regeneration in New York State (NYS DEC, 2015).
On March 10, 2015, the sale of 75 plant species will be prohibited or regulated in New York State because of their invasiveness and “to help control invasive species, a form of biological pollution, by reducing the introduction of new and spread of existing populations there by having a positive impact on the environment (NYS DEC, 6 NYCRR Part 575 Prohibited and Regulated Invasive Species, 2014).” This is a big step in the ongoing battle with invasive species or non-native species that cause harm—harm to human health, economic harm, or ecological harm (Executive Order 13112, 1999).
New York first proposed these regulations through the Invasive Species Council in 2010, “A Regulatory System for Non-native Species,” that defined a process to prohibit, regulate, and evaluate unlisted non-native species. As you read through the 75 listed plant species in New York’s regulations, they are all species already known to cause ecological harm and are broadly established in the region. Blacklisting a species in law is one way to prevent further spread. However, “it is difficult to get a species on a blacklist unless it has already caused damage, and by then it is usually too late because the great majority of established introductions are irrevocable (Simberloff, 2001).”
As the snowdrops fade, daffodils explode in a burst of yellow across the landscape. Tulips begin to emerge, peeking through recently planted violas, and magnolia buds crack open. These all provide a lavish display, but in the midst of this let us take a moment to appreciate the sustained beauty of our hellebores. Since snow still covered much of the garden in late winter, our considerable collection of Helleborus species and hybrids have been consistently blooming in shades of pink, white, deep purple, green, and yellow. They really deserve a place in your garden, too.
